Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Bought by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 947.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,737 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 17,852 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,353,416.32. The trade was a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $155.68 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $43.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50-day moving average is $145.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $138.18.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.41%.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.